The end of an era

Today July 16th 2009 marks the end of an era for climbing in Olympia as we know it. Today is the day I loose my status as the #1 route climber in Olympia. Micah, Nick and Jimmy have been biting at my heels since I moved out here and took the Olympia climbing scene by storm in 2006, and I've managed to keep them at bay over the last few years. But as of midnight tonight Jimmy will officially be the #1 route climber in Olympia according to his score on 8a.nu. On this day last year I did one of my proudest onsights Bibendum a 7b+ (12c) at Ceuse France. Now it will expire from my scorecard to be replaced by a 7a onsight, dropping my score down to 8,767 points. Jimmy has had a great year so far with 2 7c redpoints 3 7b+ redpoints and 5 7a+ onsights giving him a very strong score of 8,825. He deserves it, he has been on fire this year and has proven himself as a strong route climber as well as a boulderer. That's not to say I'm not going to give up without a fight though. The year is not over til the fireworks go off on Dec 31st, so I have time to come back and retake my title, and I'm going to try my hardest to do so.

Whats even more impressive is that in 4 days time on 7/20/09 Worm World Cave a V9 Micah did in Squamish last year will drop off his scorecard and Jimmy will take the #1 boulderer in Olympia title away from Micah. This will be the first time in about 2 and half years (when I first lost the bouldering title to Jimmy) that the same person will hold both the #1 route climber and #1 boulderer in Olympia title at the same time. Only time will tell if he will still hold both titles at the end of the year. I for one am going to do all I can to take back my #1 in routes title.